December: Week 3

This week we did another snowman art project using toilet paper tubes. The kids had a great time getting creative and even using the hot glue gun. Yay, for no one getting any burns from the hot glue!

We've beeen counting down the days until Christmas with our Christmas movies and Christmas stories. We watched a new (to the kids) Christmas movie this year, The Bishop's Wife. The kids really enjoyed that one. We've had fun with different treats to go along with our stories (chocolate orange and French cookies). Here are some of the coloring pages we've done to go along with the Christmas stories. Some of us got pretty creative with our coloring. 

Myles bought himself a watch last Saturday (thank you Grandma and Grandpa Lindsay). He loves it! Last Sunday he would periodically tell me the time, and during the week he was telling me military time. Now when I need to know the time I know who to ask!

 

This week a sweet friend stopped by with an angel ornament. She was sweet to just sit and cry with me.The past week or so has been a bit rough with the holidays and Christmas Eve approaching. Last year Christmas Eve was such a happy and exciting one, and boy we thought this year would look so different than it turned out. I honestly know how blessed I am, and I certainly wouldn't trade my troubles for another's, but it's still hard.
On a positive note, I had Chris move the elliptical into the house two weeks ago. It's crammed into our room, but it was time to face the music and not make anymore excuses. I haven't stepped foot on it since the end of February. Every time I thought about getting on it I thought about our sweet baby. I had been so good at exercising even through the morning sickness. So far I've done two weeks of C25K in one week, and it's really been a good thing. Lots of service got me through last month, and  I'm hoping some good exercise will get me through this month.

Today has been a bit of a lazy day. Chris is teaching Elsa to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the Ukulele, Myles and I played Legos and the card game War, and then we sat and watched I Love Lucy before dinner. The kids got a kick out of the episode with Harpo Marx. Now it's time for our story and movie, and everyone is looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow followed by a helping of no school.
Tomorrow is baking day. The kids each picked out a recipe for tomorrow. On the backing agenda: Molasses Crinkles, Oreo Truffles, Chocolate Crinkles, and fudge. Christmas music and baking Christmas treats with the kids.................can't get much better than that :)

I'll end with a few pictures of Elsa and Meg:

 All ready for church.

 

All ready to go help daddy out in the garage.

 

Waking up for church. I just got such a kick out of her hair. 

 

 The kids thought this was so funny; Meg hugging the condiments at lunch time. 

Wishing you all a very wonderful, magical, and miraculous Christmas!

Stormy Weather

This past week was quite eventful and fun-filled!!

Friday at lunch, Aeva serenaded us with this song. When she first started learning Japanese I introduced this song to her. This was one of my favorites growing up that I would hear on the 50's/60's radio station. Now she can sing it to me ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C35DrtPlUbc&index=14& list=PLDgZF1G6vB8F7X33Wz07pmxPLkkLb8oou


Our art projects this week were footprint reindeer and paper chain snowmen.

 

 

 I attempted a Christmas card:
 

 We had some wild weather here this past week................
rain (over 5 inches in 24 hours) and flooding, and on Thursday a lightening and thunder storm followed by hail and a tornado that touched down one mile from our home.
We started out with school work on Thursday, but when the winds picked up with major lightning and thunder, attention turned to what was going on outside. Then with the tornado, pictures of the aftermath, and news reports I decided to call it a day. There was no way to get attention back to schoolwork.

 

On Saturday Chris and Myles went to help with 100 other volunteers to clean up the mess left from the tornado.

Before .....

After.....



 Myles was a trooper. They helped out for about an hour and a half. He was soaked, but wanted to keep going. Chris decided they should head home though, and I got a warm shower ready for him with a warm towel and clothes straight from the dryer.

Some pictures from the tornado wreckage.............

 

 
 
 We had some fun with dressing up and lots of dancing going on this week.
Myles loves when this song comes on Pandora. This is "our" song.
He loves to dance with me when it comes on.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9G0-4TWwew

This is the "Presents Elf", so says Myles. 

 

Meg turned two on Sunday. I wish I could save time in a bottle sometimes. We had a lot of fun celebrating Meg and the joy she brings to our family. We love our little curly top!

 

 


 

 

 

 

Yesterday was her 2 year check up. She is tall for her age, but she is also pretty tiny weight-wise. She is a mix of Rhaevyn (who was always so tall) and Aeva ( our lightweight). She had to have some blood work done again. She is normally so good and doesn't cry, but it's been a while since she had her last blood draw. She started to cry, but there was another little one in there screaming. That took her attention off of herself, and she kept craning her neck to see the other little girl because she was so concerned about her. When we started to leave Meg kept looking at the little girl and asking "okay?" It was so cute. The lab ladies gave her a pretty bandage.............pink with a blue bow.
 

The kids are counting down the days until Friday..............the last day of schoolwork before Christmas break begins. I think we are all excited for the break, for Christmas, and for some lazy days:)
Lazy.......
I want to be out in the snow
with no work to be done

Under the warm covers
Stretching and yawning and letting the world go drifting by
I want to peep through the deep, tangled wildwood
Counting sheep 'til I sleep like a child would

With a great big valise full of books to read
Where it's peaceful while I'm killing time
Being lazy................

Welcome December

It's been an eventful first week of December.
We kicked off our Christmas movie tradition with Holiday Inn on Monday and have since watched Polar Express and White Christmas. This is one of my favorite traditions for so many reasons.

The kids and I made Chocolate Crinkle cookies this past week. Even Meg got in on the action.

The temperature here has warmed up slightly with all the rain we've been getting which is nice, but the kids are really hoping for some snow soon. While a white Christmas is not unheard of in these parts, it is certainly not the norm.

Rhaevyn has been working at perfecting her eyes when it comes to her drawings.

Myles was practicing getting his airplane to land in the tree. He was so excited when he finally got it to land perfectly in the tree that he took a picture and sent it to Chris while he was at work.

Meg got into some chocolate treats. Can you tell how much she is enjoying the chocolate? I think she felt very proud that she had been so sneaky and had it half gobbled by the time we noticed. It reminded us of the time Myles ate almost an entire bag of Costco chocolate truffles, and the evidence of cocoa powder was all over the carpet. Fantastic memories to look back on and laugh at.
Meg also had a scoopful of butter this week. As I was putting stuff away from breakfast she reached up with three fingers and swiped a scoop of butter. She put it in her mouth and said "numnumnum!" It made me laugh as I thought of Rhaevyn when she was a bit younger than Meg. She had actually taken a whole cube of butter and ate half of it. She thought it was delicious!

 

 
 Last Sunday a little red hemangioma that she has on her forehead started to bleed. We had a heck of time keeping the bleeding stopped, and it would not stay stopped for very long unless I very tightly taped a cotton ball down to it. I took her in to the doctor on Monday. This was the scene just before I took her in. Of course it was fine once we got there and has been fine since, but various places in the house started too look like a crime scene. At one point I was covered in blood, Meg was covered in blood, part of the couch, and a pillow had blood all over them. We are glad it is now under control. Poor girl :(

And it's on to the second week of December..................